Mar 02, 2011

Although big game hunting might seem like a relic of another era, the petition documents the role that international trade in African lions and their parts is playing a role in the reduction of the population. “From 1998 through 2008, at least 7,445 wild lions were traded internationally, with the United States importing a minimum of 4,021,” the groups said.

“Additionally, 64 percent of the 5,663 wild lions traded internationally for recreational trophy hunting purposes were imported to the United States.”

Feb 24, 2011

The collection of photos taken by the Hubble includes some of the most detailed photographs ever taken of the things in our universe. In the 20 years since its launch, the Hubble has made close to 100 million images, confirming the existence of black holes, exoplanets, supernovae, nebulae, proplyds, and more recently, the existence of dark matter and energy.Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1984100,00.html#ixzz1ErKK6p8e

The creation of a starburst galaxy, says study co-author Asantha Cooray of the University of California, Irvine, is all a matter of blob size. If your blob is too big, hydrogen gas can't fall together efficiently enough to sustain a starmaking frenzy. Instead the gas breaks apart to make several separate, reasonably sedate galaxies. If the dark-matter blob is too small, by contrast, the hydrogen falls together too efficiently. Stars form so quickly and so furiously that their heat keeps the rest of hydrogen from falling in. The frenzy is short-lived.

Feb 09, 2011

THE GIST The human brain has decreased by about the size of a tennis ball over the past 30,000 years. Evolution may be making our brains leaner and more efficient. The same phenomenon can be observed in domestic animals compared to their wild counterparts.

Jul 06, 2010

After 76 days, 190 million gallons of oil, and a $22.5bn (£15bn) clean-up and compensation bill so far, BP is poised to plug its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling engineers have only one chance to get it right.

One wrong move as engineers break through the cement and steel pipe of the Macondo well could increase the torrent of oil into the Gulf. In the worst case scenario, it could even trigger a blow-out in the relief well.

"They pretty much have one shot," said Wayne Pennington, the chair of geophysical engineering at Michigan Tech University. "Once they hit it and they try to kill it they really just have that one chance."